After winning the title, Callaway Competition are still not ready to relax. Four weeks on from wrapping up the 2013 ADAC GT Masters at Hockenheim in their Callaway Corvette Z06.R GT3 R, Diego Alessi and Daniel Keilwitz have yet to hold their official celebration party. The season may be over, but the Corvette outfit based near Heilbronn are still very busy. "We gave ourselves one day off after the grand finale, but we haven't yet had an opportunity to celebrate," says Callaway Competition team boss Giovanni Ciccone.

The championship celebration will have to wait a few more days, because immediately after the closing race weekend of the season, Callaway began preparations for the next campaign. "We are going to carry on testing, which we believe is vital for next year. We will also be giving trials to some new drivers. At the same time, we are working flat out on our new project, namely the development of the GT3 race version of the Corvette C7 Stingray."

The ADAC GT Masters drivers' championship trophy is the fourth piece of silverware to be picked up by the longest-competing team in the Super Sports Car League. Callaway Competition led by Ernst Wöhr and Giovanni Ciccone won the team championship in 2009 and the Amateur (now known as Gentlemen) class twice, in 2010 and 2012. The title win for Alessi and Keilwitz speaks volumes about the effort put in by this team; after a frustrating start to the campaign, they suddenly found their winning form. With six races completed, however, it had looked as if the Corvette team were a lost cause.

Ciccone: "We still had various problems at the start of the season, but we got down to some really hard work. In the summer, we went through an intensive test programme which taught us a lot about the tyres and about tuning the chassis. Some of the other teams - Mercedes-Benz for example - had got everything sorted out in time for the season. They understood the tyres and had an advantage over us."

"We had to remotivate our drivers during the summer break, because after difficult weekends at Spa and at the Sachsenring, they thought that we were out of the running. But our engineers never gave up on the job of improving the Corvette, and in the end our gruelling schedule paid off. Ultimately, though, we have to give some credit to the opposition. As Daniel and Diego were making their charge up the field in the last race at Hockenheim, everyone conducted themselves in a very fair and sporting manner, allowing them the room to pass. I am very grateful to our competitors, because after getting spun round on the first lap, it would normally have been impossible to come back and take the title through their own efforts alone."